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GIS has revolutionized how utility cooperatives operate, keeping track of their assets and making work easier in the field. GIS also helps utilities track their customers and collect data on outages to identify potential problems. "Co-ops are always looking for ways to benefit from their existing equipment and information infrastructure. GIS has really fit that bill perfectly, becoming vital to so many parts of the cooperative," Brad Hicks with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said.

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CITIC Pacific Mining has teamed up with Esri Australia to develop a GIS mapping and reporting system to manage underground infrastructure such as electrical lines and slurry pipelines. The system can be accessed via a Web browser for onsite reporting and allows surveyors to "view data such as electrical, location and access in layers which can be examined alongside other important information such as high resolution photography and above-ground infrastructure," CITIC Pacific Mining senior GIS analyst Chris Brown said.

An analysis of the 300 largest metropolitan areas has determined that the top 18 cities in terms of growth of GDP per capita are all in China. Many other top-growing cities are also in Asia; Europe, meanwhile, accounts for a large percentage of the fastest-shrinking cities.

The Great Plains are experiencing drought and high temperatures, which raises the question as to whether the Dust Bowl conditions of the 1930s could make a repeat appearance. "I would say that is not an unlikely scenario, as was partly demonstrated by last summer's dry and hot conditions, not unlike the '30s," said Johannes Feddema, chairman of the geography department at the University of Kansas. Still, moisture is helping to keep the soil together, and conditions would have to get drier for the Dust Bowl to make a comeback, he said.

Ocean levels are up 11 millimeters over 20 years because of melting ice, with the fastest rates of loss in Greenland and western Antarctica, according to a new study. "Prior to now there'd been 30 to 40 different estimates of how the ice sheets are changing ... So we've brought everybody together to produce a single estimate, and it turns out that estimate is two to three times more reliable than the last one," said lead author Andrew Shepherd of Leeds University.

Food co-ops nationwide are updating their inventory and renovating their stores as they face fresh competition from specialty retailers including Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's. "Co-ops had it easy for years," said Robynn Shrader, head of the 164-store National Cooperative Grocer's Association. "It's more complicated being a retailer today."